Critics say the search giant is squelching competition before it begins. Should the government step in?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/m...st-google.html
]]>TechnologyJust Jonhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?44034-NY-Times-The-Case-Against-GoogleFacebook to seek verification by post for election adshttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?44015-Facebook-to-seek-verification-by-post-for-election-ads&goto=newpost
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 15:06:54 GMT---Quote---
Facebook plans to send postcards in the US mail in order to verify the location of people requesting to buy adverts related to US...

Quote:

Facebook plans to send postcards in the US mail in order to verify the location of people requesting to buy adverts related to US election candidates.

Katie Harbath, a director at Facebook, said at a conference that a postcard would be sent to the advertiser's address with a code, which they would need to share to complete the booking.

A trainee had been practising hovering about 15m (50ft) above trees on Daniel Island, South Carolina, reported the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper quoting a police report.

Seeing a quadcopter flying towards them, the instructor had taken control.

But he had clipped a tree with the tail rotor, causing the helicopter to crash to the ground and tip on to its side.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42904204
]]>TechnologyJust Jonhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?44014-Probe-after-drone-made-helicopter-crashFake videos are on the risehttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?44011-Fake-videos-are-on-the-rise&goto=newpost
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:16:32 GMT---Quote---
All it takes is a single selfie.
From that static image, an algorithm can quickly create a moving, lifelike avatar: a video not...

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All it takes is a single selfie.

From that static image, an algorithm can quickly create a moving, lifelike avatar: a video not recorded, but fabricated from whole cloth by software.

With more time, Pinscreen, the Los Angeles start-up behind the technology, believes its renderings will become so accurate they will defy reality.

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google is raising the price of its YouTube TV online service for new customers as it adds channels from Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) Turner, National Basketball League and Major League Baseball, the company said Wednesday.

They're raising the price to $40 per month. That might make Sling more attractive.
]]>TechnologyJust Jonhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?43978-Google-raises-price-of-YouTube-TV-adds-sports-TurnerA scientist captured an impossible photo of a single atomhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?43965-A-scientist-captured-an-impossible-photo-of-a-single-atom&goto=newpost
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 01:09:53 GMTImage:...

Quote:

In the award’s announcement, Nadlinger, a quantum physicist, is quoted on trying to render the microscopic visible through conventional photography. “The idea of being able to see a single atom with the naked eye had struck me as a wonderfully direct and visceral bridge between the miniscule quantum world and our macroscopic reality,” he said.

Other than using extension tubes, a lens accessory that increases the focal length of an existing lens and is typically reserved for extreme close-up photography, Nadlinger used normal gear that most photographers have access to.

https://qz.com/1205279/photo-of-an-a...le-photograph/
]]>Technologydustyhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?43965-A-scientist-captured-an-impossible-photo-of-a-single-atomGerman court rules Facebook use of personal data illegalhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?43940-German-court-rules-Facebook-use-of-personal-data-illegal&goto=newpost
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:35:33 GMT---Quote---
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal...

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users.

Following a resolved bid protest, the National Security Agency can now begin work with telecommunications giant AT&T on the second of three massive tech contracts that make up the agency’s classified Groundbreaker program.

In an Intercept piece on Friday, reporter Ava Kofman detailed the secret history of the NSA’s speaker recognition systems, dating back as far as 2004. One of the programs was a system known as Voice RT, which was able to match speakers to a given voiceprint (essentially solving the Waldo problem), along with generating basic transcriptions. According to classified documents, the system was deployed in 2009 to track the Pakistani army’s chief of staff, although officials expressed concern that there were too few voice clips to build a viable model. The same systems scanned voice traffic to more than 100 Iranian delegates’ phones when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York City in 2007.

A classified NSA memo from January 2006 describes NSA analysts using a “technology that identifies people by the sound of their voices” to successfully match old audio files of Pelton to one another. “Had such technologies been available twenty years ago,” the memo stated, “early detection and apprehension could have been possible, reducing the considerable damage Pelton did to national security.”

So now they're not only capturing everything you say but they can now search for your voice among the massive amounts of recordings.
]]>TechnologyJust Jonhttp://www.justput.com/forum/showthread.php?43772-The-NSA’s-voice-recognition-system-raises-hard-questions-for-Echo-and-Google-Home